“The Present” is a graduation short from the Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction at the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg in Ludwigsburg, Germany. “The Present” is based on a great little comic strip by the very talented Fabio Coala.

There's actually a significantly longer Collider interview with the master himself, and it's great and you should definitely watch it. But this one seems a bit more unique to me, because it's not highlighting his craft so much as it is the incredibly high place he holds amongst his artistic peers.

 Meet Usman Riaz, a 23-year-old Pakistani artist who is a classically-trained pianist, who taught himself to play the guitar by watching Internet videos, and who is a TED speaker and senior fellow. Yes, that's right. I said he was 23.

Sorry.

The ability to be scandalized (and the stubborn refusal to assume the best of one's opponents) is all too common, but should we really be surprised by that? Avoiding scandal (when none is truly given) and finding a charitable explanation for another's actions is hard in the best of conditions, but doing it in the shallow and besmirching pool of the InterWebs? That's basically impossible.

While I'm more familiar with Williams and Parkening than I am with Segovia, both were profoundly influenced (and even taught) by the giant, Andrés. Without him, they probably would not be. Still, the impact of his performing and teaching is a fairly abstract consideration. Just try listening to him for a bit, instead, because that's where his true genius lies. So here's some Bach.

You know when you see a picture of something for the first time and it's amazing and then you keep seeing similar pictures and after a while it wears off and stops being amazing?

Well, this is not one of those things.

It's called "Butter Fingers," and yes, it's a short short. But it's also a funny one. And that's pretty much exactly what I was looking for today, since today is so very, very much a Monday.

Time-lapse videos like this one are some of my favorite things. Breathtaking stuff. (Most beautiful "little" moment? The mists curling through the valley. And the boiling, roiling clouds are just spectacular throughout.) I encourage a full-screen viewing. And as high a resolution as your bandwidth will allow.

Just a few weeks back, a friend and I were marveling at the workmanship (and marketingmanship) routinely on display when it comes to Denmark's legendary business powerhouse, The LEGO Group. This video, highlighted by The AV Club, makes an interesting point: while their craftsmanship and marketing (and market share) are unparalleled, originality is not really their thing.